Bulldogs Head to Boston for Terrier Invitational

Daniel Jones. (Photo by Tom Cable)

Jan 24, 2014

Elis Seek Success in Competitive Field

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The Yale men's track and field team has a short trip ahead, as it prepares to travel to Boston for the annual Terrier Invitational, hosted by Boston University, on Saturday. The friendly unscored meet always attracts a large and competitive field of northeastern and New England schools: last year's competition included the likes of Albany, Bates, Brandeis, CCSU, Connecticut, Middlebury, Rhode Island and Tufts. Many of Yale's Ivy League rivals—including Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth and Harvard—also traveled to Boston for last year's meet, and a similar assortment of Ancient Eight schools should be present on Saturday.

The Bulldogs will be seeking to rebound from a bit of a disappointing team performance against Columbia and Dartmouth last weekend, when Yale finished third among the three schools. Despite the team's finish last weekend, however, several individual Elis put on strong performances—a trend the team will be hoping to build on this Saturday.

Many of the Elis' top showings against Columbia and Dartmouth came in the sprint events, where freshman Marc-Andre Alexandre, senior Daniel Jones and senior Dana Lindberg excelled in the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes. The trio is likely to lead the Bulldogs in the short sprints again on Saturday. Alexandre will be looking to find a way to top his remarkable performance in the 200-meter dash last weekend, when he secured the eighth-fastest personal record in the event in Yale history and the fastest time by a Yale runner in two years.

Other runners to watch in the longer sprint events include freshman Chandler Crusan, junior Dylan Hurley, junior William Rowe and senior Nnamdi Udeh. Hurley (50.64) and Rowe (1:06.14) currently hold the team's top marks in the 400-meter and 500-meter dashes, respectively, this season. The grouping of Alexandre, Hurley, Jones and Rowe also holds Yale's top 4x400-meter relay time of the season, a 3:19.88 they set at the Yale Invitational two weeks ago.

Additionally, as has been the case throughout the season thus far, junior Daniel Kemp, freshman Austin Loewen and freshman Torren Peebles will represent the Elis in the 60-meter hurdles. Peebles holds the team's top time of the season in the event: 8.68.

Senior James Shirvell will lead the Bulldogs' solid crew of middle-distance runners on Saturday. The Mystic, Conn., native and team captain holds both Yale's best 800-meter time and best mile time this season by quite significant margins. Junior Michael Grace—whose 1,000-meter time of 2:31.10 is the Elis' best of the season—also figures to be a factor in at least one of the middle-distance races. A wide range of other runners have also represented the Bulldogs well in the middle-distance events this year, including sophomore John Mahoney, junior Alexander McDonald and freshman James Randon.

Meanwhile, the Elis' top runners in the distance events so far this season have included several of its best athletes from the most recent cross country season: junior Alec Borsook, senior Michael Cunetta, freshman Dan Grosvenor, junior Isa Qasim and sophomore Duncan Tomlin. Interestingly, Yale rested all of its distance runners at last year's Terrier Invitational, and it remains to be seen what approach the team will take this year.

In the field events, the familiar group of Lindberg, senior John Oppenheimer, freshman Luke Persichetti and sophomore Brendan Sullivan figures to compete on Saturday. Sullivan has emerged as one of the Elis' best pole vaulters in recent memory this season (he currently owns the fifth-best personal record in the event in Yale history), while Lindberg serves as the team's ace in the long jump, in addition to competing successfully in the short sprints. Oppenheimer and Persichetti, for their parts, will likely represent the Bulldogs in the shot put and weight throw, and both registered solid marks against Columbia and Dartmouth last weekend.

Saturday's meet will begin at 9:45 a.m. with the unseeded 5,000-meter race and conclude at around 7:45 p.m., following the two-mile run. A full schedule of events is available here. Results will be available on www.yalebulldogs.com following the conclusion of the meet.